


The Faceplant to End all Faceplants

by ParkerCuddles



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Blood, Everyone Needs A Hug, Exhasuton, Irondad, Nightmares, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter is adorable, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony Stark acting as Peter Parker’s parental figure, pure fluff, spiderson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-26
Updated: 2018-12-26
Packaged: 2019-09-27 18:25:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17167043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ParkerCuddles/pseuds/ParkerCuddles
Summary: Peter is exhausted, and well, that never ends well for him does it?





	The Faceplant to End all Faceplants

When Peter walked into the lab, Tony knew right away the kid was exhausted. He was sluggish, and his eye bags practically had their own bags. He’d been through enough to know what exhaustion looked like, and that was it. 

“Hey, kiddo,” he’d greeted. “What’s up?”

“Nothing,” Peter replied quietly, much too quietly for Peter. The kid seemed dead compared to his usual behavior, and as much as Tony usually wanted to tell the kid to shut up, he was unsettled by it. 

“You feeling okay?” he’d asked, and Peter only nodded, furthering Tony’s suspicions of exhaustion. 

Not wanting to push the kid, as he knew how irritating it was, he left the kid to his own devices, and allowed him to work. The usual chatter Peter supplied was gone, leaving only the noises of tinkering in its wake. Tony hadn’t realized how much he actually enjoyed the constant flow of Peter’s ramblings until it was gone, and he almost felt empty as he worked on his newest gadget. The boy had made no move to strike up a conversation, or to tell Tony how his day had been, no matter what minor or major things may have happened. It was... odd, to say the least. 

The two continued to work in relative silence for another half hour before Tony realized Peter’s entire side of the lab had gone quiet. He’d put his own things down, and once he did, the silence registered. Turning around, Tony’s eyes fell upon a sight that could melt even the coldest of hearts, and it did. Peter had fallen asleep working, his chin resting in his hand as his eyes barely fluttered. Tony smiled. 

The smile was short lived however, as he watched Peter’s chin slip from his hand. He expected the boy to jerk awake and catch himself, apologizing for falling asleep even though no harm had been done. It had happened before. 

Which was why Tony watched in horror as Peter’s face continued to fall until his face had smacked the metal table, no doubt waking the boy up. A sharp cry escaped the boys mouth, and he brought his face up with a hand over his mouth that was no doubt filling with blood at the moment. Tony was frozen in shock. 

That is, until Peter pulled his hand away and shrieked. “Mr. Stark!” 

In that moment, Tony was truly reminded of just how young Peter really was, and he rushed over to the scene as the tears he’d been expecting finally rushed down the boys cheeks. 

“Hey, bud, hey,” Tony tried to keep calm as he made his way to the scene, pulling Peter’s blood soaked hand away from his mouth as he tried to inspect the damage. “You’re okay. It’s alright.” 

Peter’s sobbing drowned out Tony’s words of comfort, and the man was almost at a loss of what to do. He continued trying to shush the boy, but the blood and the tears kept coming, and Tony really didn’t know how to stop either one. 

“Pete, Peter, kid, it’s gonna be okay,” Tony tried soothing. He tried mopping up the blood on the kids face with the bottom of his t shirt, which only effectively smeared it, making the problem look even worse. 

“M-Mr. St-ark I-I,” Peter tried choking out, which only resulted in the boy breaking off into another wail, not knowing how to convey what he was feeling, and also still totally in shock from what had happened. 

“I know, kiddie, I know. You’re alright, it’s gonna be okay,” Tony hated when Peter cried like that, all choked up and sad. It was pitiful, and it was a sight that could make any grown man cry. 

“Mr. Stark,” the kid tried wailing again, but not being able to get anything else out before he choked up again. 

“My-my mouth,” he hiccuped, and finally, finally he got something out other than ‘Mr. Stark.’ At least Tony could now put a name on what was hurting the boy, having previously not been sure whether it was his mouth, his chin, or his teeth. He’d prayed to every deity out there that the boy hadn’t hit his teeth or bitten through his tongue, and now he felt somewhat reassured. 

“It’s alright kiddo, we’re gonna get you fixed right up,” Tony assured. “F.R.I.D.A.Y., tell Bruce what’s going on and alert him we’re coming up.” 

“On it, Boss.” 

Once that was taken care of, Tony wrapped an arm around Peter’s shoulders and pulled him up. He lifted the boy until he was wrapped around his front, arms slung over his shoulders and legs wrapped around his torso. The poor boy was still steadily crying in his ear, hiccups occasionally being thrown in here and there. 

By the time they made it up to the medbay, Peter’s sobs had begun to cease, with tears steadily running down his cheeks. He ignored Bruce’s concerned stare as he sat the kid on the bed, his cries slightly picking up again at the loss of contact. 

“Jesus, Tony, what happened to his face?” Bruce asked, quickly making his way towards Peter, and Tony swore as the kid began crying even harder upon hearing how bad he looked. 

“Kid was falling asleep and smacked his face on the table; now fix him,” Tony answered, going to wipe tears off Peter’s cheeks. 

Bruce sighed. “F.R.I.D.A.Y., scan Peter and tell me the damage.” 

“Mister Parker appears to be suffering from a deep laceration to the lip that will begin to contuse soon,” the AI soon informed, and the two men let out breaths they hadn’t realized they were holding. Peter was still crying, but he’d stopped sobbing, so Tony saw that as a win. 

“Okay, we can work with that,” Bruce said. “I just have to see if the cut’s deep enough for stitches. If it is, I’ll sew him up, and if not, we’ll give him a cold compress and his healing should set in soon.” 

Tony sighed in relief. He was hoping Peter’s lip didn’t require stitches, but he was also thankful it wasn’t as bad as he thought it was with Peter’s crying. He winced as he heard Peter’s pained whimpers from where Bruce was poking and prodding him, and he almost cried in relief himself when Bruce announced stitches weren’t needed. 

“Tony, I’m gonna have you clean his face up. The blood is making this look worse than it actually is, and then I’ll give him a compress.” 

Tony nodded and took the wet washcloth Bruce offered him, making his way back to Peter and beginning to scrub at the boys bloody face. 

“You sure are a mess kiddo,” he murmured, and took it as a small victory when Peter gave a wet giggle in response. The blood took a few minutes to clean, and there were a few spots Tony wasn’t even able to fully scrub away, but he could tell how much better Peter’s face looked once the majority of the blood was gone. Bruce was right, it did look worse than it really was. 

“Alright, Peter. I’m gonna give you this compress and I want you to hold it gently where the cut is while I talk to Tony for a minute,” Bruce instructed, handing over a rag full of ice. Peter nodded, doing as Bruce said whilst the man pulled Tony aside. 

“So, what’s going on with the kid?” Bruce asked, and Tony rose his eyebrows in confusion. 

“How do you just hit your face on the table like that? And something is obviously wrong, I can tell.” 

Tony sighed for what felt like the hundredth time that day. 

“Honestly, Bruce,” he said. “I’m really not sure. The kid came in looking beat today, and he was falling asleep sitting up. His head slipped from his hand and he hit his face. I think he’s exhausted.” 

“Oh he definitely is,” Bruce confirmed. “F.R.I.D.A.Y., send me Peter’s sleeping patterns.” 

Once he said that, Bruce’s phone lit up with a list of times and hours, hours that Peter should have been sleeping but wasn’t. 

“Oh, Peter,” Tony murmured sympathetically, and Bruce sighed. 

“No wonder that hurt him so bad. Pain is amplified when you’re exhausted, and looks like he’s been averaging just a few hours every night.” 

Tony groaned. He’d never meant for this to happen. He’d never wanted Peter to turn out like him, like an insomniac. 

“I’ll talk to him.” 

Walking back over to Peter, Tony saw himself. He saw the dark eyes and the hollow cheeks. He saw the late nights and early mornings. And he hated it. He hated that this was his kid going through this. 

“What’s up, kiddo?” he asked, and Peter didn’t catch on right away. “You’re exhausted; I can tell. And this happened because of it. What’s going on?” 

Peter’s eyes filled with tears for the umpteenth time that day, and Tony didn’t think he could take it anymore. He’d seen Peter cry enough to last a year, and now he wanted his sweet chatterbox back, even if he’d never admit it out loud. 

“I have nightmares,” Peter admitted quietly, head down in what Tony knew was shame. The boy was always one to suffer in silence, and it made the man sick that he saw that in himself too. 

“Why?” he asked, getting up on the bed beside Peter, and setting a hand on his knee. He watched as Peter tilted his head back so as to keep his tears from falling. The poor kid was probably just as tired of crying as Tony was seeing him cry. 

“Just... everything. My mind just won’t shut up. It’s the Vulture, or it’s you, or it’s May. It’s always something I’d rather lose sleep over than see again.” 

Tony’s heart was officially broken. His kid, his innocent, kindhearted, loving kid of all people was going through this, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. Not only that, but he was beyond exhausted, and now that had costed him a busted lip. 

“Jesus, kid. I’m so sorry,” Tony didn’t know how to help the kid. He didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t reassure him it would get better because it wouldn’t; he knew that for a fact. 

Peter sniffled. “Don’t apologize. And this isn’t your fault either. I shouldn’t have been falling asleep in the lab.” 

Tony chuckled at the irony. Peter, the most apologetic person he’d ever met in his whole life, was telling him not to apologize. 

He tightened his grip on the kids knee. “I’m not gonna tell you it gets better, because really, it doesn’t ever go away. You learn to deal with it over time, but it never really goes away. I won’t lie to you.” 

“But from now on, if you can’t sleep, I want you to ask for help. Come to me. Hell, even go to Pepper or that friend, Ed, of yours. Just get some help. I wanna help you. I’m on your side, and you know there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you.”

It wasn’t often Tony let himself get sappy with the kid, well, with anyone actually. But he had to know Tony cared for him, and he couldn’t keep being so self destructive. 

“Thanks, Tony,” Peter smiled, and Tony lit up at the name. 

“Hey, you called me Tony!” he practically yelled, and Peter smirked. “Yeah,” he teased. “Don’t get used to it.”

Tony smiled. “Trust me, I won’t.” 

Bruce eventually gave an all clear to leave the medbay and sent Peter off with some cream for the cut and for the bruising. His healing had kicked in slightly, but it wasn’t doing much due to the kids exhaustion. Tony and Peter headed out with a few ‘thank you’s’ to Bruce, and he waved them off. 

Tony proposed ice cream for dinner, since Peter’s mouth was “sure to be sensitive.” Really, the two just wanted ice cream and they knew the opportunity wouldn’t arise any other time with Pepper there. The rest of the night was an easy one spent watching movies while Peter’s eyes fluttered shut every so often, and Tony would rake his hands through Peter’s curls so to say ‘you can sleep.’ 

The boy didn’t though, and by the time his usual bedtime rolled around, Tony was determined to get the kid to rest. He did everything he knew to ensure a good nights sleep; he gave the kid a glass of warm milk, tucked him in, and even pulled Pepper up to say goodnight via video chat. He could see the exhaustion on the kids face, and in his eyes, but he could also see the fear now, and he had no idea how to get rid of it. 

After all the tricks Tony used had failed, he finally sighed. 

“Alright kiddo,” he said. “Scoot over.” 

Peter looked up at him in confusion, but complied and scooted towards the other side of the bed. What he wasn’t expecting was for Mr. Stark to actually crawl in bed beside him and wrap an arm around his shoulder. 

“Mr. Stark? What are you doing?” Peter asked, though he couldn’t deny he did feel a lot more at ease with the comfort of human warmth pressed against him. 

“Well, this is my last resort to get you to sleep. I know it does wonders for me when I’ve got Pepper there,” the genius answered, and Peter only nodded. 

He tried to fight sleep for a few more minutes, but the relaxation of being warm and cozy, and having his curls massaged made the pull of sleep impossible to ignore any longer, and finally, he closed his eyes and drifted to sleep. 

Tony could have cried in relief when he felt Peter’s breathing even out. The kid was finally asleep, and he swore he felt more accomplished than he ever had. He continued to rake his fingers through the boys hair, and eventually, the pull of sleep became inviting to him as well. 

That night, Tony fell asleep more relaxed than he’d been in awhile, and both he and Peter slept through the night. 

‘Hey,’ he thought the next morning. ‘Maybe I’m not so bad at this parent thing.’


End file.
